THYROID CANCER?! What Is It??

As many of you may already know from recent posts on my Facebook page or Instagram, around May of this year I was officially diagnosed with papillary carcinoma, a form of thyroid cancer. It has been a long hard journey for the last two years. My health began declining shortly after having my son. I was losing weight rapidly, my hair began to fall out, and my skin and eyes became jaundiced. On top of all of that my body was in constant pain and fatigue, my muscles and joints continually aching; but the worst part was that no one believed me. Okay maybe not no one, but it sure felt that way. My doctor basically without saying so implied that it was all in my head or that it's just my body recovering from having a baby. I was constantly telling my family and those who would comment on my weight that I didn't know what was wrong with me, all I knew is that I felt sick. I was not my pre-pregnancy

self, in weight or demeanor. Before I was pregnant I weighed a consistent 120-125. I was healthy, full of energy, and I was pretty happy for the most part. The above collage is from before and during pregnancy, the one below is after. After having my son, I literally transformed into a different person. I was constantly tired, weak, unhappy, and in pain. Now some of these symptoms probably did have to do with just having a baby, and they would be medically

termed 'post-partum depression'. So I guess it could make sense why my doctors would keep telling me that's all it was. But I knew it was something more, and all I wanted was for someone to believe me. You know your own body. And I knew this wasn't depression. As you may have read in some of my previous blogs, I am no stranger to depression. I had become pretty good about recognizing it and the symptoms when it starts to hit. So days went on, days turned into months and months turned into years, and now here we are over 2 years later finally with an answer--thyroid cancer.

So what exactly IS a thyroid and why is it so important for our bodies?
The thyroid gland is a butterfly-shaped organ located in the base of your neck. It releases hormones that control metabolism—the way your body uses energy. The thyroid’s hormones regulate vital body functions, including:
Breathing
Heart rate
Central and peripheral nervous systems
Body weight
Muscle strength
Menstrual cycles
Body temperature
The thyroid gland is about 2-inches long and lies in front of your throat below the prominence of thyroid cartilage sometimes called the Adam’s apple. The thyroid is part of the endocrine system, which is made up of glands that produce, store, and release hormones into the bloodstream so the hormones can reach the body’s cells. The thyroid gland uses iodine from the foods you eat to make two main hormones:
Triiodothyronine (T3)
Thyroxine (T4)
T3 and T4 travel in your bloodstream to reach almost every cell in the body. The hormones regulate the speed with which the cells/metabolism work. For example, T3 and T4 regulate your heart rate and how fast your intestines process food. So if T3 and T4 levels are low, your heart rate may be slower than normal, and you may have constipation/weight gain. If T3 and T4 levels are high, you may have a rapid heart rate and diarrhea/weight loss.
So the thyroid gland seems pretty important right? At the bottom of this blog I have inserted the symptoms of an improperly functioning thyroid. If you've ever experienced thyroid problems you know just how terrible these symptoms truly are.
I've had doctors and others tell me, "Well if you are going to have cancer, thyroid cancer is the best cancer to have." Clearly they have never experienced thyroid cancer. Yes, thyroid cancer patients may have the best prognosis as far as survival rates but we will fight this cancer for the rest of our lives. People assume that when you get your thyroid removed and have radiation therapy the cancer is gone and therefore the symptoms with it. This assumption couldn't be further from the truth. In my personal opinion, thyroid cancer is one of the worst cancers you could have; simply because you will most likely not die from it but you will suffer in silence for the rest of your life. You will be on medication for the rest of your life. You will struggle with the fear of reoccurrence (which is about a 30% chance) for the rest of your life. You will now be at a higher risk than anyone else for developing another primary cancer (a cancer other than thyroid cancer) due to multiple risk factors such as being exposed to radiation therapy.
Thyroid cancer is one of the most common cancers and has been on the rise since the 1990s, yet it is the least researched by scientists and has the least amount of treatment options.
I have read many other stories from thyroid cancer survivors of how they were treated by doctors and made to feel like it was in their heads until it was too late. The thing with thyroid cancer is that it does have a great prognosis--when caught early. Many of these survivors and I shared similar experiences: not being believed by the doctors, waiting 1-2 years before getting a diagnosis, having to go to multiple doctors, still experiencing symptoms even after treatment, etc..

The same doctor who first made me feel like it was nothing ended up being the same doctor who had to make the call to tell me I have cancer. I had gone through 4 different doctors not even including the ones from emergency room visits. I was referred to a gastroenterologist and physical therapy. All of these doctors ran thorough blood tests. How did they miss it? Well for starters, thyroid cancer does not always show up in blood tests. All of my thyroid levels came back normal each time. So they would ignore it and move on to the next possible diagnosis. It was almost comical watching these doctors scramble around through their computers searching for answers only to come up with something I could have found on Web MD. I had gone to the emergency room in October of 2016 for pain in my neck/throat/ears. They sounded concerned when I told them the symptoms I had been experiencing, fearing the worst they ordered a CT scan of my neck, expecting to find a large mass. Instead the results came back with nothing but what they call lymphadenopathy or lymph node swelling. They told me to follow up with my doctor and sent me home. So I left feeling pretty discouraged that I still had no real answers. I made an appointment with doctor number 3 and she diagnosed me with sinusitis and prescribed some antibiotics. Without knowing it this was actually a step towards getting answers. I had taken the antibiotics and nothing changed, I still had an extremely swollen lymph node in front of my right ear and some in the right side of my neck. So I made another doctors appointment but this time I am seeing doctor number 1 again; you know, the one who made me feel like I was making it all up. At the beginning of the appointment she holds the same stance that there is nothing there but reluctantly decides to order an ultrasound to compare with the CT scan from LAST YEAR. This is when the suspicious nodule is discovered. I then undergo a terrible FNA biopsy, and I say terrible because I have a very high tolerance to pain meds and nothing worked, so I ended up feeling every bit of pain from the 4 needles being shoved and shaken in my neck and thyroid gland. And to make it even better I had to have 3 of these done. One thing I have learned through this process is that you must become your own advocate, no one else is going to do it for you. You have to push and be consistent if you want things to get done. There have been some really great nurses and doctors helping me, but there have also been some pretty terrible ones who just don't seem to care. If you have ever dealt with a situation like this or if you are currently dealing with it, my advice would be: don't let them walk all over you, don't let them make you feel crazy, keep pushing, find a doctor who will listen to and respect you, do your research, be confident in what you are saying, know your signs and symptoms and log everything. The longer you wait the more time you will spend unhealthy and unhappy. Don't let that happen to you! Get a good support system around you and if you are not strong enough to advocate for yourself find a friend or an outspoken family member who will! Sometimes it's hard to understand why these things happen to us, especially when we desire to be healed and we know that God is our healer, but we don't always get an explanation of the why. We just have to trust that God knows what's best for us and he is using these things to work together for

our good. I believe Romans 8:28 is not only referring to the good things that happen in life but also the bad. He's the only one who can take something broken and turn it into something beautiful. He is using every trial, hurt, and pain to construct something beautiful that at the

end of our lives we will get to see before us if we just keep trusting him and believing that he is still God no matter the circumstance. He gives and he takes away, but I will still praise Him. The most important thing I have learned throughout this process is to trust God, no matter the outcome; whatever happens is His will. Most people know that I love to sing. It's one of the gifts God has given me to worship Him with. But there was a large risk of permanent damage to my vocal chords involved in the procedure to remove my thyroid and because of where the cancer is located. But I came to the conclusion that no matter what happened, if I was never able to sing again, he is still God and He gives and He takes away. Though I am pleased to report it's been almost a week since my surgery and I have not yet experienced any negative voice changes. Whatever pain you find yourself with, if you've lost something or someone or are going through something similar, I encourage you to keep praising Him, because He is still good and He is still God. We don't always know why but we can be assured that he is using our hurts and pains for something far beyond what we can imagine. My husband and I did a cover of the song "Though You Slay Me" on our YouTube channel, it's the last song I sang before my surgery and it couldn't have been more timely. If you would like to go listen to it I will post the link below. I hope it ministers to you as much as it did to me. God bless. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f16btMcs-HU&t=544s

Below are symptoms of issues with the thyroid. 

•pain in the neck

•weight loss or gain

•swelling in the neck or lymph nodes

•hair loss

•fatigue